The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have returned to Scotland. Known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, the pair visited the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow to mark its 120th anniversary.
The Duke, who has long championed the arts across Britain, wore a blue printed face mask to visit the gallery for its anniversary. Charles and Camilla were met by the Lord-Lieutenant of Glasgow, Museum Manager Neil Ballantyne, and Head of Museums and Collections, Duncan Dornan. They were shown several notable pieces, including Salvador DalÍ’s Christ of St John of the Cross.
As reported in the Glasgow Times, Dornan spoke of the visit: “We were anticipating visiting a number of locations around the museum, and we ended up being very tight for time because their attention was captured by a lot of the collection as we moved round, but we did manage to go to the Dali… they spent a brief time looking at the Rubans, which were recently discovered in our collection and finally attributed to Rubans, so we spent a little bit of time looking at that, and the pre-Raphaelites in the upper gallery.”
They also were able to view a temporary exhibition, “Burrell at Kelvingrove: Collecting Chinese Treasures.” Sir William Burrell was a Scottish philanthropist and shipping merchant (1861-1958) and was a noted art collector. The exhibition includes nearly 150 pieces of Chinese Porcelain, jade, and bronze, and pieces from the Tang and Ming dynasties.
The couple met with staff and discussed the challenges that they have faced over the last year and a half, as well as local school children.
The Burrell Collection, kept in its own separate building at Pollok County Park, is set to reopen in March 2022, after a £68 million refurbishment. The collection contains over 9,000 pieces and is one of the largest personal art collections in the world.
